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Rhetorical Devices In I Have A Dream Speech

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Recommended: The rhetorical devices in the "i have a dream speech

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses different persuasive appeals to target a specific audience. The “I Have a Dream” speech was written to motivate and inspire listeners; to stir up emotions. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written to persuade white clergy to support civil rights. In the “I have a Dream” speech, King uses an upbeat and hopeful tone along with strong, charged language to make his audience, a colossal crowd surrounding the Lincoln Monument, feel stirred into action. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which was written by King in the quiet confines of his jail cell, was meant to change the opinions of well educated clergy members. The two texts were written for the same purpose, but, they have two distinctive intended audiences. …show more content…

He uses strong charged language to get his listeners riled up. In the speech, King uses many rhetorical devices to make the speech stronger. King uses many vibrant analogies in the text to depict freedom and injustice. “In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (King pg 262). This elevates the audience’s understanding of his cause. The strong language used in the speech is very persuasive and makes you feel inspired to make a difference in the world. Another emotionally appealing technique that king uses is repetition. “So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring ...” (King pg 264). When you listen to Kings words, you clearly see his pain, but you also see the intense hope that he has for the civil rights movement. This allows for his words to strike straight to your

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He places the strong authority of the declaration on his side to show how the American people are in contradiction to their own “sacred obligation” and the Negros have gotten a “bad check.” A metaphor representing the unfulfilled promise of human rights for the African Americans. King skillfully evokes an emotional response from all races with the use of religion: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” By doing this he finds a common ground that brings black and whites closer with a common belief in God they share, as well as the mention of

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“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice” (King). This paragraph of his speech was very effective because it made some of the

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This reference in particular evokes the strongest emotional response from black people because many African Americans revered Lincoln for his decision to sign the revolutionary Emancipation Proclamation, and how the document symbolized a free future for slaves--the ancestors of the blacks in the crowd. But the next few lines following this allusion also persuades those ignorant of how little things have changed by highlighting the “manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” that blacks still suffer from despite the hundred year gap. Here, he uses the connotations of “manacles” and “chains” to evoke a negative emotional response from the audience, especially from those unaware of the need to change, causing their opinion to match the speaker’s: against segregation. Additionally, King weaves biblical allusions into his speech to appeal to the Christians within the crowd. He uses the “dark and desolate valley of segregation” to illustrate the injustice African Americans have endured for centuries and juxtapositions it with the “sunlit path of racial justice” to exemplify a future where true freedom exists for

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